[BigJMoney]

Month 9 – The Year Of THE HAG

If you were to have visited Linshire one month ago, you would have had no idea that this was the same land. What was once a dry desert basin had become a verdant hillside country. Staying for a while had been a good idea. Despite the disapproval of his goddess, he knew that she was the reason their progress had been so rapid. He had never seen men work so hard to search for a well, and they were rewarded for their hard work. Atop the green land, however, was the real reason they were still here. Smoothly cut granite stones formed a low wall that spanned the entire slope. This was the foundation of his peoples’ second walled city. Things had gone underway and were now in full swing. Balin had performed phenomenally up to this point, and Erkeborn was confident that he would finish it properly.

To the east, a lonely mountain peninsula stared down upon the foundations at night. Ulm’s commander looked back into the mountain and wondered who lived there. No spies had made it that far east, since they were busy feeding him information from the dangerous lands in the south. He wondered if the people in that mountain had heard of his god yet. He believed they probably did, for, who could not know of the greatness of Yohlla? In his eyes, she was everyone’s mother. Erkeborn heard shouting. It was coming from the entrance to the camp. He made his way in that direction when three riders broke through the darkness, heading toward him. Two of them he recognized as his men, but the third was a dark skinned man he had never seen before. He wore strange clothes marked with bold and bright colors.

“Commander! We can barely understand this man’s tongue, but he carries a piece of parchment and is demanding that you read it. I have opened it to make sure it is safe, but I did not lay my eyes on the message. We have taken his weapons, and we are ready to do with him whatever you ask.”

Their commander replied, “Good. Hand me his message. Maybe it will explain where he is from or who he is.” Erkeborn read the parchment and then looked at the strange man. He paused in thought for a while and then ordered, “Elon, go and take a message from me to my spies. I am altering their assignments. Do not delay. Let this man leave our camp. He should return to his people, immediately. Do not give him any trouble.” He looked down at the message again, and wondered at the true meaning of the words there:

Dear Men of Ulm,

We are not a thoroughfare. Please reroute your spies, or we will continue to kill them.

Sincerely,
Your friends in the lands of Machaka

[Don't worry about me posting diplomatic relations in this 'AAR', because I won't. That would ruin the game. I will try figure out some way to represent it in the story appropriately.]